As you get older you'll find that there's one thing that you seem to have much less of and that's time. It hasn't always been like this. When I was younger time could be split into two distinct sections; there was school and there was fun. Sometimes you'd have some fun at school and occasionally school homework would eat into your fun but, apart from those rare exceptions, everything was pretty straightforward.
Now it's a different story. My work, family, friends, girlfriend, TV, forums, eBay, gaming and everything else all demand my time. Since I have less time than ever (or so it seems) I've had to make cutbacks. Now, it's not easy cutting back your gaming when you're a multi-console kind of guy like me and the console manufacturers don't make it any easier. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony insist on releasing great games much faster than I can play them, which creates a tension. Games line up on my shelves, all screaming to be played and flashing their titles at me (oo-er!). I have to calmly choose which will be the lucky one that I'll spend the night with. 
And to further confuse matters, it seems that since I discovered the joys of online gaming I've completely forgotten what a single player game is. Nintendo and Microsoft did try their best to jog my memory when they threw a double whammy of Super Mario Galaxy and Bioshock at me, but I was already smitten with the Orange Box. These days Call of Duty 4's multiplayer has stolen a bit of that love but it's more the occasional mistress than the loving wife; a bit more intense and a lot more dangerous!
What I have found is that my games collector/player balance has been turned on it's head. In the past a large portion of my time was spent on eBay trying to find rare games, import titles and limited edition controllers. Now I spend hardly any time on eBay and a lot more time actually playing games. The thrill of finding a rare game has been replaced with a more sustainable thrill of playing games I genuinely enjoy.
So I guess I've come full circle, back to the thing that originally excited me about games. For me it was all too easy to get caught up in a collectors frenzy and I ended up buying games because of their status; "rare", "import", "valuable" or "limited edition". I found some real gems but also ended up buying some terrible games as well. I still drool over the rare, the valuable and the limited editions but now I think "will I ever play them"? And if the answer is no, they don't belong in my collection.
